A leading disease incurred by women is breast cancer. Breast cancer is the second leading cause of death for women of all ages and the leading cause of death for women aged 25-55.Approximately one in eight women will incur breast cancer in their lifetimes. The current medical standard for determining breast cancer in women is mammography. However mammography fails to detect up to 20% of breast cancers in women over 50 and up to 40% of breast cancers in younger women. Breast cancer grows slowly but under current techniques such as mammography the average detection is only on cancer growths which have been growing over seven years at which time the growth size of the cancer generally ranges between 1 and 2 cm. Almost 90% of all breast cancer originates in the mammary ducts, where it grows slowly in its initial stages.
After detection breast cancer is generally treatable in three ways: surgery, radiation and chemotherapy. Surgery and radiation, of course, have risks and disadvantages well known to those of skill in the art. Chemotherapy also can be particularly disadvantageous as, for example, when the drugs involved cause sickness to the patient when they enter the blood stream.
Endoscopic biopsy procedures are typically performed with an endoscope and an endoscopic biopsy forceps device (bioptome). The endoscope is a long flexible tube carrying fiber optics and having a narrow lumen through which the bioptome is inserted. The bioptome generally includes a long flexible coil having a pair of opposed jaws at the distal end and manual actuation means at the proximal end which opens and closes the jaws. During a biopsy tissue sampling operation, the surgeon guides the endoscope to the biopsy site while viewing the biopsy site through the fiber optics of the endoscope. The bioptome is inserted through the narrow lumen of the endoscope until the opposed jaws arrive at the biopsy site. While viewing the biopsy site through the fiber optics of the endoscope, the surgeon positions the jaws around a tissue to be sampled and manipulates the actuation means so that the jaws close around the tissue. A sample of the tissue is then cut and/or torn away from the biopsy site while it is trapped between the jaws of the bioptome. Keeping the jaws closed, the surgeon withdraws the bioptome from the endoscope and then opens the jaws to collect the biopsy tissue sample.
A biopsy tissue sampling procedure often requires the taking of several tissue samples either from the same or from different biopsy sites. Unfortunately, most bioptomes are limited to large areas of entry and to taking a single tissue sample, after which the device must be withdrawn from the endoscope and the tissue collected before the device can be used again to take a second tissue sample.
Attempts have been made to provide an instrument which will allow the taking of tissue samples within small duct areas. A simple double barrel catheter with adjacent lumens is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,221,622 with one of the lumens being used to irrigate the milk duct of a breast and the other lumen being used to aspirate the fluid which has entered the duct allowing a continuous flow of saline through the duct which hopefully carries enough cells and tissues for a biopsy. Problems in the use of such an instrument include the small size required by the narrow small diameter lumens which can be blocked or limit the flow of fluid back through the aspiration lumen and thus preclude significant tissue collection or cause duct collapse. While the '622 Patent shows a small lumen size the size problem is magnified with the other existing prior art if the same were to be applied to breast ducts and the endoscope is to be used with mammary duct inspection because of the small size and thin cell walls of the mammary ducts.
Thus almost all known multiple sample biopsy instruments are precluded from use with an endoscope because of their size and rigidity. These include the “punch and suction type” instruments disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,989,033 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,522,206. Both of these devices have a hollow tube with a punch at the distal end and a vacuum source coupled to the proximal end. A tissue sample is cut with the punch and suctioned away from the biopsy site through the hollow tube. It is generally recognized, however, that dry suctioning tissue samples (i.e., without the use of an irrigating fluid) through a long narrow flexible bioptome is exceptionally difficult.
The present device provides multiple sampling ability to an instrument which must traverse the narrow lumen of an endoscope or cannula housing an endoscope which in turn must traverse the small diameter of a breast duct. Numerous examples of prior art exist which are able to operate in a larger area such as U.S. Pat. No. 4,651,753 which discloses a rigid cylindrical member attached to the distal end of a first flexible tube. The cylindrical member has a lateral opening and a concentric cylindrical knife blade is slidably mounted within the cylindrical member. A second flexible tube, concentric to the first tube is coupled to the knife blade for moving the knife blade relative to the lateral opening in the cylindrical member. A third flexible tube having a plunger tip is mounted within the second flexible tube and a vacuum source (a syringe) is coupled to the proximal end of the third tube. A tissue sample is taken by bringing the lateral opening of the cylindrical member upon the biopsy site, applying vacuum with the syringe to draw tissue into the lateral opening, and pushing the second flexible tube forward to move the knife blade across the lateral opening. A tissue sample is thereby cut and trapped inside the cylindrical knife within the cylindrical member. The third flexible tube is then pushed forward moving its plunger end against the tissue sample and pushing it forward into a cylindrical storage space at the distal end of the cylindrical member. Approximately six samples can be stored in the cylindrical member, after which the instrument is withdrawn from the endoscope. A distal plug on the cylindrical member is removed and the six samples are collected by pushing the third tube so that its plunger end ejects the samples.
It can thus be seen that the preferred mode of operation of virtually all existing endoscopic tools currently being used is that a gripping action at the distal end of the instrument is effected by a similar action at the proximal end of the instrument. Another endoscopic multiple sample biopsy device is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,171,255 which discloses a flexible endoscopic instrument with a knife-sharp cutting cylinder at its distal end. A coaxial anvil is coupled to a pull wire and is actuated in the same manner as conventional biopsy forceps. When the anvil is drawn into the cylinder, tissue located between the anvil and the cylinder is cut and pushed into a storage space within the cylinder. Several samples may be taken and held in the storage space before the device is withdrawn from the endoscope. Traditional biopsy forceps provide jaws which can grasp tissue frontally or laterally. Even as such, it is difficult to position the jaws about the tissue to be sampled. Lateral sampling is even more difficult.
A traditional form of biopsy is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,542,432 which shows an endoscopic multiple sample biopsy forceps having a jaw assembly which includes a pair of opposed toothed jaw cups each of which is coupled by a resilient arm to a base member. The base member of the jaw assembly is mounted inside a cylinder and axial movement of one of the jaw assembly and cylinder relative to the other draws the arms of the jaws into the cylinder or moves the cylinder over the arms of the jaws to bring the jaw cups together in a biting action. The arms of the jaws effectively form a storage chamber which extends proximally from the lower jaw cup and prevents accumulated biopsy samples from being squeezed laterally out from between the jaws during repeated opening and closing of the jaws and the lower jaw cup enhances movement of the biopsy samples into the storage chamber. The device can hold up to four samples before it must be retrieved out of the endoscope. However, in some biopsy procedures it is sometimes desirous to retrieve more. In addition, it has been found that samples within the chamber can stick together and make determinations of which sample came from which biopsy site somewhat difficult.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,538,008 discloses a multiple sample bioptome which purports to take several samples and transfers each sample by water pressure through a duct to the proximal end of the instrument, where each sample can be individually retrieved. The device includes a plastic jaw set biased in an open position and coupled to the distal end of an elongate tube, up to seven feet long. The tube defines a duct. A sleeve extends over the tube and a water flow passage is provided between the tube and the sleeve. An aperture is provided in the tube to permit the water flow passage to meet the duct at the distal end of the tube. Withdrawing the tube into the sleeve is disclosed to force the jaws closed and enable a sample to be cut from tissue and lodge in the duct. The water flow passage is disclosed to enable water to flow under pressure from the proximal end of passage to the distal end of the passage, through the aperture and into the distal end of the duct and to be aspirated to the proximal end of the duct, thereby transferring with it any sample contained in the duct to the proximal end where the sample can be retrieved.
Generally in the field of surgery, mechanical cutters utilizing a reciprocal or rotating cutting element have been used to sever tissue of a patient. Cutting devices that use light energy to cut tissue are also well known in the art. Electro surgical devices for tissue excision or cauterization similarly have a long medical history. Such instruments have encountered numerous problems due to their one dimensional capabilities and have failed to meet many of the needs of a surgeon performing a surgical procedure.
While some lasers are effective coagulators and cutters, certain other types of lasers, CO2 lasers for example, are effective at cutting tissue but are not good coagulators. Certain lasers are good coagulators but are poor tissue cutters. The YAG laser, for example, is sometimes used as a coagulator but is not considered to be a good tissue cutter.
The ablation of tissue in various other regions of the body has been previously studied. U.S. Pat. No. 5,107,513 describes the general use of three types of lasers. Carbon dioxide (CO2) laser radiation is intensely absorbed by water and thus acts as a surgical knife and vaporizer, its penetration depth in tissue being 0.03 mm. Argon lasers are minimally absorbed by water but intensely absorbed by hemoglobin and penetrate 1 to 2 mm in most tissue. These lasers are especially useful in coagulating bleeding points in small superficial vessels. Neodymium-Yttrium-Aluminum-Gamet (Nd:YAG) lasers are poorly absorbed by both water and hemoglobin. These lasers are able to penetrate large volumes of tissue, blood clots and coagulate large bleeding vessels. A Holmium laser with a 2100 nm wavelength has good cutting capabilities and its coagulating properties are similar to those of the Nd:YAG laser, penetrating to about 0.4 mm for most tissue. The Holmium laser was noted to be useful for the following applications: (1) in the gastrointestinal tract for bleeding ulcers, excision of lesions, recanalization of obstruction and arresting of massive bleeding; (2) in general surgery for cutting without bleeding; (3) in urology for treatment of the bladder; (4) for creation of vascular anastomoses; (5) for aneurysms, patent ducts, varicose veins and hemangiomas to generate thrombosis; (6) for dissolution of gall bladder stones by insertion of a fiber optic into the bile duct; (7) for destruction of tumors in the bronchial tree; (8) in gynecology for fallopian tube shrinkage and removal of polyps, benign tumors and septum and for ablation of the endometrium for menorrhagia; (9) in cardiac surgery for treatment of obstructed valves; and (10) in neurosurgery for removal of solid as well as vascular tumors.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,147,354 describes the use of a mid-infrared laser endoscope for performing arthroscopy. Holmium:YAG and Holmium:YLF lasers with wavelengths in the 1800 to 2200 nm range are used for producing laser ablations in a fluid field. The radiation is said to be easily transmitted through a conventional quartz optical fiber.
Thus, there is a need in the art for new and better micro-cannula/endoscope assemblies and methods for using same that can be used to directly visualize the mammary ducts of a breast where visualization is by means of endoscopic devices, direct visualization (as opposed to creation of photographic images) and offers the additional advantage that the equipment required is comparatively simple to use and is less expensive than the equipment required to create photographic displays from such images. In addition, there is a need in the art for a method of identifying diseased or abnormal tissue during surgical procedures so that immediate resection or biopsy of the identified tissue can be performed without the necessitating the use of additional instrumentation.